tains and consoles me. Solange is in Paris with her
husband; they are going to travel. Chopin is in Paris also;
his health has not yet permitted him to make the journey; but
he is better.

The following letter, of an earlier date than those from which my last
two excerpts are taken, is more directly concerned with Chopin.

Madame Sand to Gutmann; Nohant, May 12, 1847:--

Thanks, my good Gutmann, thanks from the bottom of my heart
for the admirable care which you lavish on him [Chopin]. I
know well that it is for him, for yourself, and not for me,
that you act thus, but I do not the less feel the need of
thanking you. It is a great misfortune for me that this
happens at a moment like that in which I find myself. Truly,
this is too much anxiety at one time! I would have gone mad, I
believe, if I had learned the gravity of his illness before
hearing that the danger was past. He does not know that I know
of it, and on account, especially, of the embarras in which he
knows I find myself, he wishes it to be concealed from me. He
wrote to me yesterday as if nothing had taken place, and I
have answered him as if I suspected as yet nothing. Therefore,
do not tell him that I write to you, and that for twenty-four
hours I have suffered terribly. Grzymala writes about you very
kindly a propos of the tenderness with which you have taken my
place by the side of him, and you especially, so that I will
tell you that I know it, and that my heart will keep account
of it seriously and for ever...

Au revoir, then, soon, my dear child, and receive my maternal
benediction. May it bring you luck as I wish!

George Sand.

[FOOTNOTE: This letter, which is not contained in the
"Correspondance," was, as far as I know, first published in
"Die Gegenwart" (Berlin, July 12, 1879)]

If all that George Sand here says is bona fide, the letter proves that
the rupture had not yet taken place. Indeed, Gutmann was of opinion that
it did not take place till 1848, shortly before Chopin's departure for
England, that, in-fact, she, her daughter, and son-in-law were present
at the concert he gave on February 16, 1848. That this, however, was not
the case is shown both by a letter written by George Sand from Nohant on
February 18, 1848, and by another statement of Gutmann's, according to
which one of the causes of the rupture was the marriage of Solange with
Clesinger of which Chopin (forese